By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp
ANKARA (AA) – At age 52, Josep "Pep" Guardiola is already a coaching legend, his reputation for leading football teams to victory well assured. With decades possibly left in his coaching career, Spain-born Pep can boast of being the only manager in history to finish three calendar years with at least five trophies, in 2009 and 2011 with Barcelona, and now with Manchester City, in the just-concluded 2023.
In their banner year, Man City laid claim to the UEFA Champions League final on June 23, beating Italian Serie A club Inter Milan 1-0. They also bagged the Premier League on May 20 and the FA Cup on June 3, truly making it a year to remember.
Pep's storied football journey is decades in the making. He got his start in football while barely a teenager, enrolling in the famed Barcelona football academy La Masia at age 13, where he began to learn the basics of positive soccer based on a lot of passing, ball control, and tactical discipline.
Pep became a part of legendary Dutch coach Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team," which won the club's first European Cup in 1992.
Guardiola learned many from Cruyff, who pioneered positive football and laid the foundations of modern Barcelona, which dominated European football between 2005 and 2015.
English manager Sir Bobby Robson, along with his assistant manager/translator Jose Mourinho, took the helm in 1996, and the duo led Barca to the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de Espana, and the European Cup Winners' Cup victories in 1997. Then-team skipper Pep's relationship with long-time friend and rival Mourinho began during this era.
- Retirement from the pitch, taking the helm at Barcelona
After hanging his boots in Mexican club Dorados in 2006, Pep was appointed manager of Barcelona B in 2007, with Tito Vilanova as his assistant.
He was later appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–8 season to begin his successful coaching career.
In his historic first season, Pep managed to clinch a "Famous Treble" – winning the domestic title, domestic cup and European cup in the same season – after beating Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League final on May 27, 2009.
Barcelona, which capitalized on an incredibly successful passing game called "Tiki-taka," managed to build on their success next season.
In 2009, Pep became the first manager to finish the calendar year with a record six trophies: the Spanish La Liga, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, and Club World Cup.
In the 2010-11 season, Barca bagged the UEFA Champions League by beating Manchester United once again in the final, with a 3-1 score, along with Supercopa de Espana and his third consecutive La Liga championship.
In his final season of 2011-12, Pep's Barcelona won Supercopa de Espana and the Copa Del Rey, but they lost the La Liga title to Real Madrid and were eliminated by Chelsea in the Champions League semifinals.
Pep, already under fire for his unorthodox tactics during the season, announced that he would step down as Barcelona's manager at the end of the season, saying that four years at a club like Barcelona felt like "an eternity."
- Sabbatical, Bayern Munich
After a year's sabbatical, Guardiola took the helm at German Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich for the 2012-13 season, replacing Jupp Heynckes.
Despite losing his first official match with the Bavarians 4-2 to Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup, Pep began a successful era in Bayern Munich.
He clinched his third Club World Cup by beating Raja Casablanca in Morocco in December 2013.
After helping the team win three consecutive Bundesliga titles along with two German Cups, Pep left Bayern Munich to go to English Premier League contenders Manchester City.
- Manchester City
Before hiring Pep, Premier League side Manchester City had already bagged their first title in 44 years with Italian coach Roberto Mancini in the 2013-14 season but failed to win the title for the next three seasons. The club board had also set their sights on winning the top-tier club competition, the UEFA Champions League, which led them to approach Guardiola.
Pep lost the 2016-17 season to Conte's Chelsea and managed to finish his first season third, behind Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham. But he had been paving the way for the club's long-term success.
The Citizens won four English Premier League titles over the next five seasons, only losing to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool in the 2019-20 season, but they kept falling short in the UEFA Champions League.
He led Manchester City to their maiden Champions League final in May 2021 only to lose to Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea 1-0 in the final.
The 2022-23 season was the turning point for Manchester City.
With the addition of Norwegian striker Erling Haaland to the squad, City became a goal-scoring machine.
Haaland broke the record for the highest number of goals scored in a Premier League season with 36 goals in 35 appearances, and Man City clinched a famous treble with Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League trophies.
The team then went on to bag UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup before 2023 ended.
- Legacy ensured
Pep Guardiola is seen as one of the best football coaches in history.
He has 37 trophies under his belt, which makes him the second-most title-winning manager in football history, behind Sir Alex Ferguson with 45 titles.
He is the only manager to finish three calendar years with at least five trophies, in 2009 and 2011 with Barcelona and then in 2023 with Man City.
With five FIFA World Cups under his belt, no coach has led teams to more victories in the top-tier competition.
His tactics rely on discipline, retaining possession of the ball, and dictating play, along with a high pressing intensity off the ball.
He is among one of the best practitioners of the "total football" tactical system, which his former mentor, Johan Cruyff, invented. Under the system, any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team.